Sharks rally from four goals down, but fall to Kings

San Jose Sharks' Dany Heatley, left, and Los Angeles Kings' Jack Johnson, right fight for the puck during the second period of their NHL hockey game in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. The Kings won 6-4. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

LOS ANGELES — Coach Todd McLellan didn't know which Sharks team would show up Tuesday night — the "slow and sloppy" one that lost to Colorado or the "fast one that executed well" in dismantling Anaheim.

Turns out he got both.

The Sharks looked terrible in the first half of the game, falling behind 4-0 before four San Jose power-play goals evened things up with a little more than five minutes left to play — only to see the Kings score two more and come away with a 6-4 victory.

For McLellan, the bad definitely outweighed the good.

"We're not going to win games giving up six goals," he began. "We're not going to win games not scoring five on five. We're not going to win games with goaltending like that. We're not going to win games if we don't get our penalty-kill clears out. We won't win games looking for players for the first half of the night."

It marked the second shaky outing of the season for goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who was yanked when the score reached 4-0 a little over halfway through the second period. Backup Thomas Greiss took over at that point, seeing his first NHL action since Feb. 20.

San Jose's top line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi performed poorly at even strength, going a combined minus-7.

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But it also almost single-handedly brought the Sharks back into the game on the power play with Setoguchi getting two goals, Rob Blake one, and Heatley picking a dramatic moment for his first as a Shark, rifling the puck past goalie Jonathan Quick at 14:24 of the final period to tie the score at 4-4.

But it took only 26 seconds for the Kings to go ahead for keeps when right wing Teddy Purcell's shot from behind the goal line bounced into the net off the back of Greiss' leg.

"That was a bad one," the rookie goaltender said. "It was my fault. I've got to have that one."

And an empty-netter by Kings defenseman Davis Drewiske made the final score 6-4.

Nabokov, who gave up four goals on 20 shots, wasn't particularly sharp. But like that first game in Denver, when he gave up five goals on 14 shots, he was also the victim of defensive lapses in front of him.

"I don't know if they're the same mistakes, but there certainly are a lot of mistakes being made out there defensively," defenseman Dan Boyle said. "It's not good. We certainly let him down on almost every goal."

The Kings opened the scoring at 5:49 of the first period when Nabokov made two saves in succession but couldn't keep a second rebound out of the net when Wayne Simmonds outfought the Sharks defense to get his stick on the puck.

Veteran left wing Ryan Smyth made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 1:52 of the second period that McLellan blamed on forward Jed Ortmeyer's inability to clear the puck out of his own end.

The two quick goals that drove Nabokov from the game were by defenseman Jack Johnson, who got his stick on a waist-high centering pass as he cruised toward the crease, and a fluttering shot from Anze Kopitar that deflected off defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic's stick and eluded the Sharks goalie.

So did McLellan's decision to pull Nabokov at that point reflect unhappiness with the goaltender or the entire team?

"Both," the coach said.

A series of Kings penalties enabled San Jose to get back into the game with Setoguchi opening the scoring at 16:00 of the second period with a one-timer.

Kings forward Alexander Frolov earned a four-minute penalty later in the period for drawing blood when he high-sticked Setoguchi, and the Sharks narrowed the gap with Blake's goal 17 seconds from the end of the second period and Setoguchi's second of the night at 1:01 of the third.